bomberbrown

This story has just been aired a bit bearishly on BBC News. I love that animated backdrop of the red house plunging downwards in the water whilst a big pocket of air bubble rises to the top, where it will obviously dissipate pop.

Unfortunately, my yardstick on fixed rate mortgages is still available. 25 years @ 5.97%, so it looks like the Cheshire ain't phased. http://www.thecheshire.co.uk/online-mortga...ortgage-FCJ.asp Also, I notice that the A&L will have their fixed rate mortgages back on the 23rd April. Whats so special about that day?

It was on Sarah Kennedy's review of the papers this morning (not sure which paper) that the Banks are fast pulling these fixed rate deals now.

This really is the crux of the matter (before the Bulls start calling us a load of ingrates). Yes, they're crappy new builds, but when you're starting at the bottom of the ladder, you don't expect Kensington Palace. But £290,000.......get real!!!

Ahh, I wasn't aware of that. Thanks. OK, same question. Has anyone ever had or asked for a 3 year AST?

Cheers STF, but I'm probably not clever with the 'lay' principle. Basically, I'd just keep increasing the backers stake (in the pink side) till the 'liability' figure is equal (or as near too) the figure that I'd win with my 42/1 backing bid. So I'd be guaranteed the difference between my backing stake and 'backers stake' bid on the lay bet? Have I understood that correctly?

I placed a bet at 42/1 on a .5% rise. The odds are now 12/1. How/what should I lay off so's to make a guaranteed profit, how does it work? I'm a Betfair noobie too.

You've touched on this about the Pound/Dollar a few times. Can you briefly enlighten an economics novice as to what you mean? Cheers Pluto.

....yet!

So how the f@#k does that correlate with this from yesterdays hradline news?: Energy firms accused over prices

Out of interest. Have any renters here ever asked a landlord/letting agency for a 5 year tenancy? With landlords apparently desperate for tenants, I'm very interested to know whether renters are in a position to bargain for one in the current climate. Ozzmosis, perhaps you could ask if you'er looking around for a new place. I might even pretend to be looking and phone some EA's.

Give it time. In 2010 you might be able to buy two places where you live now.

Ahh, I see. Thanks for the explanation. I wasn't entirely sure how an offset mortgage actually worked but I think I've got the idea now, and I can see how principally you can save money tax free using one (rather than putting money in savings). However one question (for the bits in bold). If the market was to tank, how would you lose money? (apart from the obvious devaluation of your house). Could you get the £10,000 overpayment back out in cash before you sold/had to sell. Is this what you mean?

No way, I'm not that confident of a 0.25% raise! Are you mad? I tend to bet on the outsider. I won £38 with a £2 stake on the January rise.

Good point. I've just stuck a wager on 0.5% on Betfair @ 42/1. Odds on a 0.25% are attrocious (1.33/1).

I still don't get it (scratches head). Can you or the OP give a real world example (with figures for illustration) of what you're on about because on the face of it, it sounds as though if you have an offset mortgage you can avoid paying 40% tax on your savings? Oh, hang on, I think I might have it. Rather than saving the money, you pay off more of the mortgage/loan? If so, thats not the same as saving is it becasue you couldn't go out and spend the 'saved' money could you?

I've mentioned this before on here. I regularly do a search on Walthamstow. You can end up with the same property covering almost all 10 listings on the same page on some of the pages because the same property is being marketed by many estate agents.

OK. I've uploaded the BBC wmv (WMP) clip to a file hosting site. Click the link below and in the red bit, you have the option to download the file. When you click 'download' choose to save it to your hardrive (rather than opening it). http://www.tradebit.com/get/1728276 It's just over 4Mb so it's not huge.

Also, rememeber that this will have a knock on effect most noticably on the Service industry. People will start tightening their purse strings and forego that cafe mocha to go, meal out down the local Indian, giving the house a lick of paint, BLT baggette from the works deli etc.

I wholeheartedly agree with all this. I would also say that if we started having 5 year leases, the bubble would pop instantly. I made a comment about this recently. This vendor is obviously pulling out because the HA he's renting the flat to now wants to rent the place off them for 5 years. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-710...=1&tr_t=buy

I wasn't criticising your style/posts btw. Anyway, whats short term? I personally don't think we'll see any slowdown or decline till Q1 2008 (I've been saying this since October last year) and the reall fall out will begin in 2010. So am I still bear? Perhaps I need to change my profile to 'neither' as well?

http://www.co-buywithme.co.uk/ and http://www.sharetobuy.com/ PS. GIYF (Google Is Your Friend)

OK, I found a neat little freeware program called GetASFStream. Basically, you put the URL in and it determines the protocol and location of the source file/s and downloads them. Its a bit clunky and buggy, but it worked a treat on that BBC clip. It appears japanese but in English. http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/t...%2fdownload.cgi Disclaimer: Obviously, you download and install this software at your own risk etc. I take no liability.

I was just having a look at this site. http://www.infocellar.com/software/streaming-media.htm However, I'm running Vista and some parts of the advice don't tally. Might be OK for you if you're running XP though. I'm looking to save the BBC stream myself so once I managed it, I'll post how I do/did it up here.